Monday, June 28, 2010

Let's get our Teasers straight

Between 1974 and 1978, Group 1 Films commissioned artist Robert McGinnis (best known for his Dell and Gold Medal paperback covers of the 1950s and '60s) to create ad artwork for several of their R-rated softcore sex films. One of the campaigns McGinnis worked on was for a movie called THE TEASERS (1977)...

...which turned out to be an Italian comedy titled LA LICEALE (1975), starring Gloria Guida. This movie was so popular in the U.S. that Group 1 acquired another foreign film they could quickly re-title and pass off as a sequel, THE TEASERS GO TO PARIS (1978), which is actually MARCHE PAS SUR MES LACETS (1977), a French comedy directed by Max Pécas.

Now, this is where things get a little mixed up. At some point in the early '80s, Group 1 re-released THE TEASERS under the title SOPHOMORE SWINGERS, but instead of coming up with new artwork or a different ad campaign, they created stickers of the new title and tag line which could be affixed to existing one-sheets. Unfortunately, this new title was attached to THE TEASERS GO TO PARIS one-sheets instead of THE TEASERS, as you can see below. The result: most online sources now claim that SOPHOMORE SWINGERS is a re-titling of THE TEASERS GO TO PARIS, when it's actually a re-titling of THE TEASERS. To make things even more confusing, SOPHOMORE SWINGERS (THE TEASERS) played double bills with something called LOCKER ROOM TEASERS, which may or may not have been THE TEASERS GO TO PARIS. Whew! Got it? Good. Now all we have to do is explain this mess to the folks at the IMDb!

Oh, and one more thing before we call it a night: compare McGinnis' work on THE TEASERS GO TO PARIS (above) with the two designs he came up with for SEMI-TOUGH one year earlier (below).

Thank you, Marc, but we're beginning to think that the hardest part of all this research stuff is dealing with the IMDb! I thought the reason things like THE THURSDAY MORNING MURDERS and A TON OF GRASS GOES TO POT hadn't been added yet was because I didn't post the complete credits, but I've had no luck adding INTERNATIONAL STEWARDESSES and I did provide them with complete credits. A few weeks ago I chatted with Lawrence Cohn, who was trying to clean up Lee Frost's IMDb credits. He finally threw in the towel when he couldn't convince them that THE CAPTIVES and SLAVES IN CAGES are two different movies. I figured if Lor. couldn't get some of this info accepted, no one can, but you seem to have the magic touch. I'll send you another list of changes that still need to be made, or maybe just post 'em here on the blog in a week or two. Thanks again, Marc!